Reddit for User Testing & Iterative Development
I've been working on my passion project (A Free financial independence and retire early calculator for the UK) for the past 2 months and oh boy did my first solution suck!
Here is the site:
Blackandwhitefire.com
I started posting on a few relevant subreddits and the feedback & user testing I got was fantastic and I've had 3.57k of unique visitors and nearly 6k page views from 4 reddit posts.
The feedback I recieved has shaped the 4 new releases of the tool and I have a 5th new update in the works.
Here's what I've learned:
- Don't spam the community, have something genuine to show/tell
- avoid larger communities with explicit self promotion rules - you are fighting with more posts per hour and if you do get a good upvote response you will possibly get your post banned.
- pick smaller more narrow niches that better fit your target users, I got more engagement from a much smaller community that better represented my niche
- provide an image if you have it, tends to get more views.
- when you get comments, respond to them to build a larger thread and even if they are negative, acknowledge them.
- pick your time to post carefully, I use https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis to pick times the community are most active.
- Aim to get in the top 3 spots on the hot post list, this will magnify your reach. Also if you have a planned post and there are several highly upvoted items consider delaying a day for those to dropoff so you can claim the spotlight
- credit the community who provided feedback. I have kept a list of users who have provided good feedback on features I implemented and added them to my product roadmap:
https://blackandwhitefire.com/roadmap
Hope some of you find this applicable to your project!
Thank you for sharing!
Using Reddit for user testing and iterative development can be a valuable approach to gather feedback, insights, and iterate on your product or project. Here's a guide on how you might leverage Reddit for these purposes:
Identify Relevant Subreddits:
Find subreddits that align with your project or product. There are subreddits for almost every niche and interest.
For user testing, look for communities where your potential users might hang out.
Engage Transparently:
Be clear about your intentions. Let users know that you're seeking feedback for user testing and improvement.
Transparency builds trust, and Redditors are often more receptive when they understand the purpose.
Create a Detailed Post:
Craft a well-detailed post explaining your project, what you're looking for, and how users can participate.
Include specific questions or areas where you'd like feedback.
Provide any necessary context or materials for users to understand your project.
Encourage Constructive Feedback:
Ask for constructive criticism and specific feedback. What do users like? What do they find challenging? What improvements would they suggest?
Iterate and Respond:
Actively participate in the discussion. Respond to comments, answer questions, and show that you value the community's input.
Use the feedback to make iterative improvements to your project.
Which subreddits did you use that got you good results?
Fire & retirement specific ones. The large PersonalFinance ones are not the best place, the more specific the audience the better (I found)
Reddit is so good it gives so much of information i love
Thank you for those insights. We're building a pixel art editor from which I've shown some progress on reddit. It had some good reception, but I'm really wary about spamming the community. Did you explicitly ask for feedback?
Hi - I did initially but now I just say thank you and show progress - what i've found is people are more likely to give feedback and engage if you don't ask for feedback at all! I make a rule of only posting genuine updates that users have commented on before, especially with pics of new features. I'm not going to make a habit of posting daily - only once/maybe twice a week at an absolute push.
The idea is amazing. But the site needs UX improvements.
When I landed on the website, I felt super confused. As your idea is validated you can look for design expertise, especially on UX.
Thanks for the feedback - I'm actively working on a bigger update to improve UX and the overall flow of the site. Did you access from desktop or mobile? Also was it just generally confusing (i.e. layout/visuals etc) or was it more - what is the point of the tool?
The hero section fails to portray what you do. I had to scroll down.
There are only 7-11s of the period to attract a user. I think you can improve here.
I do have expertise in UX design, if you want to book a 15-min call with me to discuss the issues fell free to reach 👇
http://calendly.com/pentaclay/intro
Hi - upon reflection you are absolutely right - I've added a new section with some better visuals and a bit of a summary to the site. Thank you for highlighting!
Impressive work on your passion project and thank you for sharing this valuable insights with the community.
cheers!